[applause] >> nice. trinny whitaker, ladies and gentlemen.

our sixth contestant is qualifieding for the -- qualifying for the very first time today. he's a conductor. he's been with muni 15 years, with the cable car division nine years. please welcome joseph hsu. mr. hsu, how's it going? if you weren't driving a cable car, what would you be doing? >> watching tv? >> so you can play the drums and watch perry mason at noon at the same time. sounds good to me. ladies and gentlemen, mr. joseph hsu.

[ringing bells] [applause] >> joseph hsu, ladies and gentlemen. joseph hsu. now, all those six men are competing against this man, ladies and gentlemen. we left him for last simply because he was the 46th annual cable car bell ringing champion. ladies and gentlemen, he's been with muni for nine years, eight

years on the cable car. let's hear it for two-time winner mr. leonard oates. [applause] go -- good to see you, leonard. up got the gloves on. i see you are ready. you and i have a city in common. where were you born? >> new orleans, louisiana. >> new orleans, louisiana the yeah, let's hear it for the 504. how do you prepare for this whole darn thing here? >> practice. >> ok. that will get you to broadway but here you are in union square. ladies and gentlemen, two-time winner, mr. leonard oates. >> this is what i do every day. [ringing bells]

>> leonard oates, ladies and gentlemen, reigning two-time champion mr. leonard oates. that completes the entire competition, ladies and gentlemen. let's hear it for everybody you heard today. the votes from the judges will now be tallied. that means up guys actually have to go to work now. we're going to name the tom three winners in the amateur

and professional categories. the first place winner of the professional competition will take home a beautiful cable car bell with -- made by gilberto at the frens of the cable car museum. every year this man makes a beautiful cable car bell for this competition the mr. gad oy is pretty shy, he won't talk about his work but the craftsmanship speaks for itself the every bell every year is individually made by this man. it's a craft. you will see him a little later. while we're waiting for the votes to be tallied though, you're not going anywhere. i'd like to introduce some of the city's top choreographers from the epiphany production, the san francisco trolley dances. it's recognized as a wonderful way to connect the san francisco neighborhoods together by performing on the trolley lines.

this year they'll be core i can't graph -- choreographing dances on the church line. let's welcome the san francisco trolley dancers. >> hi, there. [bells ringing] [bells and chimes ringing]

[music continues]

♪ ♪ [singing in italian]

♪ santa lucia ♪ santa lucia ♪ santa lucia >> fantastic! wow!

let's hear it for them. ladies and gentlemen, epiphany productions sonic dance theater, san franciscoance theater, san francisco trolley dancers. you will see them on muni jay church line. they'll be there all year. fantastic. nice work. well done. and now while we're still tallying our scores, our band today is called the slot blades but i bet you didn't even know what a slot blade is, do you? it's a piece of machinery the cable car operator uses to stop the cable car. it's a very important piece of metal. it's the official emergency brake that drives a metal wedge into the ground and pushes the blade and imbeds itself for a quick stop. but these slot blades keep us going. ladies and gentlemen, once more, the slot blades! [applause]

♪ ♪ oh, go bop

♪ go bop, bop, go bop, bop, go , go bop ♪ ♪ go jingle bop

♪ go bop >> the slot blades, ladies and gentlemen! >> thank you. >> is everybody ready? is everybody ready? to announce the amateur third

place category in 2009. tom sweeney. third place, amateur category. tom? >> third place winner goes to kblx. let's hear it for kblx. right. congratulations. congratulations. thanks, tom. >> go away. now second place, ladies and gentlemen. from triple-a. matt newcomer. all right, matt, who is our second place winner in the amateur category? >> our second place winner is the team from abc 7. >> abc 7 come and get it! couple of words? >> thank you so much. if you watch abc 7 at 3:00 p.m. um see this trophy on tv. >> ok, excellent. all right. and to announce the first place winner, mr. wes tyler of union square.

wes? big mystery. who's the winner. >> by the process of elimination, it's koit! >> koit. mr. scotty bastopol for the third year in a row. love this city. thank you. >> runners up. the 47th not -- annual cable car bell ringing competition, no particular order, mr. trini whitaker. sullivan philips. ken lunardi. and joseph hsu. come up and get your trophies. thank the judges. [laughter] now it's time for what you've

been waiting for, third place, ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. howard woo. again, they're not booing you. all right. mr. ken mcdonald. chief of muni operations officer, please come forward to help me present the second place trophy. second place, ladies and gentlemen. mr. frank ware. and before we announce the winner i'm going to drag this out even longer. i'm going to take a moment to thank the kind people who made the 47th annual cable car bell ringing contest possible the the vice chair of the sfmt board of directors. and friends of the cable car

music, union square association, trophy masters shanghai restaurant, ghirardelli chocolatesing, and the american automobile association and the $250 cash prize, deluxe sightseeing. let's bring up gilberto gad oy with the hand-crafted bell. and the winner is -- >> mr. leonard oates. congratulations. >> leonard oates. he retains the crown. [applause] that concludes the 47th annual cable car bell ringing contest. thank you, everybody, for coming. don't forget next year the 48th

annual cable car ringing contest. stay tuned for details.

>> thank you for joining us on the ribbon cutting 4 car 15. this car, the design, the poor plan, is from over 100 years ago. if -- the blueprint is from over 100 years ago. if you think about it, cable cars are the longest serving transportation can say is that we have in this city. they build these by hand using the original blueprint and the original dies, two tons of steel, over three types of wood. we are so proud of the work they are doing. this car will have its inaugural run today but i imagine 100 years from now, think of the people who will run this car. people come from all of the world to visit the city.

i would like to turn it over to our mayor, someone who has a vision that is built into our transit first policy. we have the great leadership of our mayor is continuing to stick to the vision of a green technology. >> it depends on his mood whether he wanted to let that a break ago. thank you very much for coming out, great to see you open. they elevate that sense of spirit and pride that we have in san francisco. this is why people come out to the city and county of san francisco is to experience not only the sights and sounds of the cable car but the thrill of

the cable car ride. i had the privilege of living on a cable car line for the past five years. this reminds me of how fortunate i am and how much i love this great city. we are very blessed to have starts of the system for a generation. i want everyone to recognize today as the former mayor and dianne feinstein's leadership. it was her leadership as mayor that preserved these cars. they were on the press at this of going away. -- press thprecipice of this gog away. cable cars connect us to our

proud past. this is an expensive endeavor. i know that things come at a price. this investment into this cable car was roughly $800,000. it was a lot of money. it was worth every penny. it could be possible to bring these together. these are historic cars. you cannot bring a new cable car and bring some plastic and refurbished sheet rock. you have to bring it back to its original glory. we will put some local dollars up so this was not a bigg